Narayana Kocherlakota

There were three dissents among the voters in this FOMC meeting which in itself is a bit unusual but the fact that two came from the “Hawkish” side and one from the “Dovish” side shows the wide range of opinions on the economy.

“The committee judges that it can be patient in beginning to normalize the stance of monetary policy,” the Federal Open Market Committee said today in a statement in Washington, removing a calendar-based phrase with language that gives it more flexibility

Essentially, the Fed has been pushing stock and bond prices up to "bubblish" levels, in the expectation that they will inspire the kind of consumer spending, physical investments and hiring required to subsequently justify them. The hope is that the convergence will occur in the context of full employment.